The Influences Of Reading Conditions On Information Integration In Text-reading: Evidence From Eye-tracking

On the issue of information integration in text-reading, there are minimalist hypothesis theory, memory-based text processing view and constructionist theory. In recent years, scholars have developed two other integrative theories about text reading, i.e. dual-processing model and landscape model. Every theory has its own viewpoints and studies to support them. It is gradually accepted by more and more researchers that there are both automatic and passive activation and integration supported by the memory-based text processing view and positive and strategic activation and integration supported by constructionist theory. But it still has many debates on the mechanism of the transformation between them. The purpose of this essay is to explore the influences of reading conditions on information integration in text-reading.Eye-tracking system is used in the study. In experiment 1, the materials include focus information, while there is no obvious focus information in experiment 2. Both experiments are 2(reading conditions)×3(text versions) mixed design in which reading conditions are within-group variable, which is divided into two categories(with reading tasks and without reading tasks), text versions are between-group variable, which is divided into three categories: enablement version, disablement version and re-enablement version according to whether the characteristic description is consistent with subsequent target action carried out by the protagonist. The dependent variables are first pass reading time, re-reading time, total reading time and regression times within AOI( the target sentence).The results indicated that:(1) The constructing and updating of situation models is a dual-processing. It's goal-information integration supported by the here-and-now hypothesis when there is focus information in experiment materials and it's coordinating integration supported by the memory-based text processing view when there is no obvious focus information.(2)Reading conditions influence the reader's reading standard, which is showed by more re-process when the readers should answer some questions after each text (with reading task).